There’s an article in the January issue of Clean Eating magazine declaring that chia seeds are the new flax. I had no idea you could actually eat chia seed, let alone how good it apparently is for you, but now I can’t get images of kids all over the world licking their Chia pets or shaking them over their breakfast cereal.

Upon further inspection, there is a ton of Chia vs. Flax information online, right down to full nutritional breakdowns of both. (here) But, I have a bias toward Clean Eating, it’s a terrific publication and I think they boiled the vitals down the most succinctly:

Compared to flax, chia contains about three times the calcium.

Chia does not need to be ground to be absorbed.

One ounce of chia seed contains 4.9 grams of omega-3 and 10.6 grams of fiber, while one ounce of flax contains 3.5 and 5.4 grams respectively

Other articles online claim chia also contains two times the protein of any other seed or grain, five times the calcium of milk, two times the potassium of bananas and three times the iron of spinach. Quite the little super food.

They are described as having a nutty flavour and are great in cereal, yogurt, salads and can be ground up for baked goods. For the gluten free set, (like me) you can actually get chia flour and there’s a surprising amount of recipes online for using it. I’ll have to try some out, but my mind keeps going to mossy green sprouts shooting out of my cookies.